As far as I know, there are no POLITICAL organizations — possibly because North Korean hit-squads would be dispatched to kill its leadership immediately. No North Korean defector has stepped forward to try to take the leadership role in trying to become a “dissident in exile” which indicates to me that no one wants to hold that role.

I believe that the North should be handled sort of like Okinawa was handled — in a very general sort of way. If the North fell, the ROK Constitution states that the North and South are one country. Therefore, it could take over its operation as a “protectorate” — under the watchful eye of the United Nations. It could contain the North Korean refugees in the North to keep them from flooding to the South and destroying the ROK economy.

The ROK could shuttle aid — along with the international community — to allow them to survive and start a reeducation program to bring the DPRK populace out of the dark ages. This process may take over a generation. The North has the infrastructure of government – but they have a different philosophy. Once the North’s people have their eyes opened to the truth of the world community around them, the mechanics of government would simply be modified to support a market economy/democracy/modern lifestyles and move away from the juche welfare state idea. Understandably such a technically-backward populace will take a great deal of time to be reeducated. However, if the Chinese are an example of how quickly it can happen, it may not be long — perhaps as little as a decade.

Then when the time is right hold a plebiscite over whether the North wants to join South Korea — or go on its own to remain an independent nation. Let it be there choice. The Okinawans chose the Japanese — and many now regret it — but that was their choice. The same needs to hold true for the North — let it be their choice whether for good or bad.

You should take a look at what information the folks in North Korea get to see everyday. Those of you in South Korea take a look at the Pyongyang Times. They constantly talk about Mr. tiny doing this and that. How can one short idiot make x tons of food? Or be able to produce y megawatts of electric enegry. I read one article back in the 1990’s talking about North Korea inventing the superconductor. Talk about a total fabracation of history, those people once freed are going to need to be re-educated on what really has happened in the world since their Great/Dear Leaders took over.

Since ‘ole tiny Kim has not named someone to take over, if he has passed into the great fire down below, the military and the government will have to make that decision. That person will have to have the backing of the Army to supress any uprisings.

The role of the US and Japan would be a large one, but they must be one of supporting South Korea when the North finally falls. South Korea will need to grow some nads or appear to do so to tell folks what they want the US and Japan to do. The US will likely dispose of any nuclear material and shut down the Youngbyon plant. The US and Japan should supply the food and supplies to help as the South would have a very difficult time figuring out what to do with all of those people. China, doesn’t want the North to fail due to the possible presence of US forces near their border and the possibility of taking care of a boatload of North Koreans as they leave their former country. The US will have to negoiate some sort of treaty to keep the government in China happy.

I do hope that Mr. small man who thinks he’s big, has joined Hitler, Saddam, and his father in Hell.

Might sound hash, but the “let us help yourselves, does not work, and has never worked.”

The North is completly incapacitated as a society waiting to break free.

They have been brainwashed, starved, isolated from outside influence and heavily restricted from establishing their own culture/history…tghis isnot some thousand year old civilization, such as Vietnam, etc. From what modern day N. Koreans know…they are the children of Kim Jong Il. Might sound very harsh, but psychologically based, it is true.

This is the reason that I say let the South bring them into the fold once hostilities start and over the generations they will be assimilated into the fold of South Korean culture.

There is no North Korean culture to be salvaged…from what we know, only suffering, survival, etc. let Koreans work it out.

This is a hard road to travel by Judeo-Christian cultures, but we do not have the most glowing track record in the reconstruction of countries.

Many of the defectors are highly uneducated and do not have the work ethic or skills of the average South Korean because of the way they were brought up. They are not all hopeless though.

My battalion had a North Korean refugee come and speak to the officers in the unit and though he needed a translator because he couldn’t speak English, he came off as quite interesting and not a hopeless cause. Why not try and educate those that are not hopeless causes?

Has anyone even tried to do anything to organize and educate the North Korean defectors? Most of the defectors are in South Korea where they feel like second class citizens due to the discrimination against them.

With ROK agents completely controlling everything in North Korea you will have the entire north of the country feeling like second class citizens in their own land.

In my opinion the ROK should do everything possible to put as much of a North Korean face on the reconstruction of North Korea as possible instead of flooding the place with ROK operatives and turning the place into one big source of cheap labor for the chaebols with South Koreans calling all the shots. Such a policy is bound to eventually cause animosity with the North Korean population.

I never said anyone wanted complete de-Baathfication. State’s Future of Iraq Project Report supported what every government agency supported that de-Baathification would happen but had to be done selectively. Just admit it the State Department supported de-Baathification. You are looking foolish to say otherwise.

The State Department also supported disbanding the Iraqi military which is clearly evident with the fact Bremer a State Dept. guy disbanded the Iraqi Army against the wishes of Jay Garner. Bremer defends his reasoning for doing so in the interview. Once again your argument that State was opposed to dismantling the Iraqi Army is absurd when Bremer a State Dept. guy defends his decision to do so.

Once again I never said Karzai played a more important role in ousting the Taliban the Nothern Alliance. It quite pathetic your repeated attempts to claim I said things I never said. Karzai did play a significant role in fighting the Taliban in southern Afghanistan. The US did not want the Northern Alliance to conduct heavy combat in southern Afghanistan because of the ethnic make up of the Northern Alliance fighters compared to the mainly Pashtun people in the south. That is why Karzai’s mobilizing of people to fight the Taliban in the south was so important.

Exiles from North Korea do not have to come from just the United States either. The majority of exiles are in South Korea and the ROK would be wise to organize and train their defector community but probably won’t because of complaints from NK. That is why it is important to send them overseas to be educated in not just the US but other western countries.

Your statement by Jaafari is once again absurd because the only ones that boycotted the elections in Iraq were the minority Sunnis which would have made no difference to whether Jaafari was Prime Minister or not since he was from the major Shiite party. In the December 2005 elections more Sunnis participated in the election and turnout for the election was at about 70%:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraqi_legislative_election,_December_2005

The turnout for the next Iraqi elections for the Sunnis I am willing to bet is going to be enormous.

Both Afghanistan and Iraq show that exiles can play an important role in reconstructing their countries. Your claims that exiles have no role in reconstructing their countries is contradicted by the overwhelming evidence saying otherwise. Exiles both in Iraq and Afghanistan have been accepted by the internals and no rift between the two have ever been reported.

Since you don’t have reading comprehension let me explain what by “educating them, this group could become the future doctors, teachers, government administrators, essential services operators, etc. in a post-collapse North Korea”, means. North Korea does not have modern medicine capabilities they will need people to come in and train North Koreans in modern medicine. North Korea’s essential services is a joke. They need lots of people to help re-establish the essential services in the country. Why not train North Korean exiles to help with these functions?

And Gaetano since you can’t stop your habit of falsely claiming I said things I didn’t say this thread is now closed to you.

In total agreement.

IMHO, the best avenue of approach is for the South to flood te North with trained operatives once hostilities began, by our agencies if need be, with the eventual goal of reuniting both countries into “One Korea” and with an end game of letting the South completly take over just as soon as hostilities were brought under a certain level of containability…let Korea take care of Korea and let us leave quietly to a position of overwatch.